MINISTRYOF HIGHER AND SECONDARY SPECIALIZED EDUCATION
OFTHE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
GULISTANSTATE UNIVERSITY
TheEnglish and Literature department
SufievaZamira’s qualification work on speciality 5220100, English philology on theme:The Theme: W. Shakespeare’s comedy “A Midsummer Night’sDream”
Supervisor: Tojiev Kh.
Gulistan-2006
Plan
I Introduction
1.1. General aims and purposes of the qualificationwork
2.1. Some words about William Shakespeare and his play“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
3.1. Critical estimation of the play.
II Main Part.
1.2. Chapter 1. Compositional Structure of the playand its scene-by-scene analysis.
1.1.2. The idea and composition of the play
2.1.2. The introductory significance of the first act
3.1.2. Depicting of opposition and controversy ofhumans standing
4.1.2. Theme of love and its interpretation in thethird act
5.1.2. The approaching of climax
6.1.2. The Post-climax of the comedy
2.2. Chapter 2. The brilliant majesty of theShakespearean language.
1.2.2. The language of William Shakespeare
2.2.2. Verse forms and prose dialogues of he play
3.2.2. Rhetoric, patterning and word play examples
3.2. Chapter 3. The analysis of the main themes andcharacters.
1.3.1. Order and disorder
1.3.2. The young lovers
III. Conclusion.
1.3. The results and conclusions of investigation
2.3. Some words about William Shakespeare and hiscomedy “ A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
IV. Bibliography.
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Thetheme of my qualification work sounds as following: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”This qualification work can be characterized by the following:
The actuality of this work caused byseveral important points. We seem to say that Shakespeare always remains actualfor us because his works, even written three centuries ago his immortal poems,tragedies, chronicles and comedies tell about the modern things and phenomenawhich are happen to be in our lives, such as humans’ qualities, the problems ofwar and peace, love, revenge, etc. And our work becomes much more actualbecause of the reason that this year we remembered the 1390thanniversary passed after his death so the significance of our work can beproved by the following reasons:
a) William Shakespeare for theBritish literature is of the same value as Pushkin for the Russians, Navoi forthe Uzbeks, Abai for the Kazachs, Balzac for the French, etc.
b) “AMidsummer Night’s Dream” is one of the latest plays of Shakespeare which waswritten not long before the author’s death. That is why this comedy candemonstrate us the way of mental thinking of the late Shakespeare.
c)Though having written about the ancient Greek life, this comedy reflects thereal state of affairs happened in Anglia of the period of the 16thcentury.
d)The book also worth studying for its brilliant language, cast of thepersonages, ideas and dialogues within the scenes.
Having based upon the actuality ofthe theme we are able to formulate the general goals of our qualification work.
a) Tostudy, analyze, and sum up the play from the modern viewpoints.
b) Toanalyze the major scenes in the play and to show their significance for theplot.
c) Toprove the idea of modernity in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
d) Tomention and compare between themselves the critical opinions concerning to theplay.
If we say about the new informationused within our work we may note that the work studies the problem from themodern positions and analyzes the modern trends appeared in this subject forthe last ten years. Mainly, the newality is concluded in a wide collecting ofinternet materials dealing with the play. The practical significance of thework can be concluded in the following items:
a) Thework could serve as a good source of materials for additional reading bystudents at schools, colleges and lyceums.
b) Theproblem of difficult reading of Shakespeare’s language could be a little biteasier to understand, since our qualification work includes the chapterconcerning the question mentioned.
c) Thosewho would like to possess a perfect knowledge of English will find our workuseful and practical.
d)Our qualification work is our little gift to memory of the outstanding English writer.
Having said about the scholars whodealt with the same theme earlier we may notion T. Shcepkina-Kupernik andA.Lozinsky, who made a great input to the popularization of the great Englishin our country, A.Anikst, who prepared the first “Russian Follio” ofShakespeare’s works, J.Coleridge, Dr.Jonson, Alfred Bates and many others.
If we say about the methods ofscientific approaches used in our work we can mention the method of generalanalysis was used.
The newality of the work is concludedin including the modern interpretations of the play.
The general structure of ourqualification work looks as follows:
The work is composed onto three majorparts: introduction, main part and conclusion. Each part has its subdivisiononto the specific thematically items. There are three points in theintroductory part: the first item tells about the general characteristics ofthe work, the second paragraph gives us some words about the author of the playand the history of his work “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, while the third partof introduction analyzes the critical works dedicated to the immortal comedy ofWilliam Shakespeare… The main part of our qualification work consists of fourchapters which, in their turn, are subdivided into several thematicallyparagraphs. The first chapter of the main part discusses the compositionalstructure of the comedy, its plot and main idea. Here we also gave theparticular attention to the description and further analysis of the mostmeaningful scenes in each act of the play. The second chapter thoroughly takesinto consideration the peculiar features of Shakespeare’s language. In thischapter we tried to make our conclusions to the points of verse and prosecorrespondence, rhethoric, patterning and wordplay talent of the “Avon Bard”.The third chapter takes into consideration the main themes touched upon theplay, and their correspondence to the described epoch from the one side, andtheir actuality in the 21st century from the other. The last chapter of themain part observes the characters of their play and their interrelations inrespect to the society, mental and age status. In conclusion to our work wegave our ideas got in the result of our investigation and appreciated thefuture perspectives of the latter. At the very end of our qualification work wesupplied our work with the bibliography list and the internet materials.[1]
2.1. William Shakespeare, born in1594, is one of the greatest writers in literature. He dies in 1616 aftercompleting many sonnets and plays. One of which is “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”They say that this play is the most purely romantic of Shakespeare’s comedies.The themes of the play are dreams and reality, love and magic. Thisextraordinary play is a play-with-in-a-play, which master writers only writesuccessfully. Shakespeare proves here to be a master writer. Critics find it atask to explain the intricateness of the play, audiences find it very pleasingto read and watch. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a comedy combining elementsof love, fairies, magic, and dreams.
“AMidsummer Night’s Dream” is more or less contemporary with Romeo and Juliet,and dates from the mid 1590s. In it, Shakespeare is painstaking in hisattention to details of language (as in the early Love’s Labors Lost), but theplay also shows the maturity of his best later work in its stagecraft. It isone of a group of plays known sometimes as festive comedies – the others being “AsYou Like It and Twelfth Night’s”. The plays are associated with festive seasonsand traditional celebrations. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is more democraticthan many of Shakespeare’s plays – rulers, nobles, workmen and spirits alldominate the drama at different points. As a term to describe a category (kind)of play, tragedy (which means “goat song” in classical Greek!) originates inAthens in ancient times. Aristotle (a philosopher and scientist, but noplaywright) describes rules or principles for the drama which tragedians shouldfollow. These rules have proved helpful as a working description, but shouldnot be seen as absolute: Shakespeare, in practice, ignores them more or less.Comedy is a term applied to the humorous plays of Greek (e.g. Aristophanes) andlater Roman (e.g. Terence) dramatists. For Shakespeare, a comedy is a play witha happy ending – it may or may not be comical in the modern sense of being humorous.In trying to arrange Shakespeare’s work into categories (as for publication inbook form) editors have produced a third category, of histories. More recentlycritics have noted that Shakespeare’s latest plays do not fit any of thesecategories easily. Thus we have problem plays (or tragicomedies) in Measure forMeasure and All’s Well that Ends Well and pastoral plays or romances inPericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. We should know thatthese labels were not consistently or even commonly applied in Shakespeare’stime. Plays classed as tragedies (such as Macbeth) may have a clearlyhistorical subject. Some of our “histories” (such as Richard II and RichardIII) were advertised as tragedies at the time of their performance. />Shakespearewrote plays to be seen in a complete performance which would, for “A Midsummer Night’sDream”, last about two and a half hours. The play would be performed bydaylight (between about two and four o’clock) in the purpose-built open airtheatres, or with artificial light (lanterns and candles) in private houses ofwealthy patrons (The Tempest may well have been originally written for privateperformance: many of the special effects work best indoors and under artificiallight; both Hamlet and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” show plays-within-the-playwhich are performed indoors, at Night’s). The plays were not written to be reador studied and (hand-written) copies of the text were originally made only forthe use of the performers. It is important to remember this when you study theplay as a text (with extensive editorial comment) on which you will beexamined. Shakespeare’s company was the most successful of its day, and hisplays filled the theatres. Many (most?) of the audience in a public performancewould lack formal education and be technically illiterate (this does not meanthat they were unintelligent). But these were people for whom the spoken wordwas of greater value than is the case today: they would be more attentive, moresensitive in listening to patterns of verse and rhyme, and aware of imagery(word pictures).
Theintervals between Shakespeare’s “scenes” represent changes in time or place,but not of scenery, which would be minimal or non-existent. Basic stagefurniture would serve a variety of purposes, but stage properties and costumewould be more elaborate and suggestive. A range of gestures and movements withconventional connotations of meaning was used, but we are not sure today howthese were performed.
3.2 Critical opinions on the play
“Iam convinced,” says Coleridge, “that Shakespeare availed himself of the titleof this play in his own mind, and worked upon it as a dream throughout.” Thepoet, in fact, says so in express words:
If we shadowshave offended,
Think but this(and all is mended),
That you havebut slumber’s here,
While thesevisions did appear.
And this weakand idle theme,
No moreyielding but a dream,
Gentles, donot reprehend.
Butto understand this dream–to have all its gay and soft and harmonious colorsimpressed upon the vision, to hear all the golden cadences of its poesy, tofeel the perfect congruity of all its parts, and thus to receive it as a truth,we must not suppose that it will enter the mind amidst the lethargic slumbersof the imagination. We must receive it
As youthfulpoets dream
On summer evesby haunted stream.
Noone need expect that the beautiful influences of this drama can be truly feltwhen he is under the subjection of literal and prosaic parts of our nature; or,if he habitually refuses to believe that there are higher and purer regions ofthought than are supplied by the physical realities of the world. If so, hewill have a false standard by which to judge of this, and of all other highpoetry–such a standard as that of the acute and learned critic, Dr. Johnson,who lived in a prosaic age, and fostered in this particular the ignorance bywhich he was surrounded. He cannot himself appreciate the merits of “AMidsummer Night’s Dream”: “Wild and fantastical as this play is, all the partsin their various modes are well written, and give the kind of pleasure whichthe author designed. Fairies, in his time, were much in fashion; commontradition made them familiar, and Spenser’s poem had made them great.” And thusold Pepys, with his honest hatred of poetry: “To the King’s theatre, where wesaw “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, which I had never seen before, nor shall everagain, for it is the most insipid, ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life.”[2]Hallam accounts “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” poetical more than dramatic; “yetrather so, because the indescribable profusion of imaginative poetry in thisplay overpowers our senses, till we can hardly observe anything else, than fromany deficiency of dramatic excellence. For, in reality, the structure of thefable, consisting as it does of three, if not four, actions, very distinct intheir subjects and personages, yet wrought into each other without effort orconfusion, displays the skill, or rather instinctive felicity, of Shakespeare,as much as in any play he has written.”
The Main Part.
1.1.2 The idea and composition of the play
Inorder to understand a play, we have to work harder than did the Elizabethan orJacobean audience. To see a play entire (in the theatre or on film), withoutinterruption apart for the interval, may be needed for us to appreciateShakespeare’s strong sense of narrative drive, and to see how the text is notthe play but a (loose) blueprint for performance. On the other hand, study oftext and editors’ notes may be necessary for us to appreciate some of theattitudes the contemporary audience brought into the theatre. Such notes mayexplain images and highlight patterns or structures which otherwise we mightnot “hear”. They may explain semantic change (changes of meaning) in words orphrases used by the playwright to convey important ideas to his audience.
Inwatching Shakespeare in performance we are not likely ever to enjoy the instantpleasure of experiencing a work of art (like a feature film or soap-opera orfirst-person novel) which uses conventions and a range of cultural referenceswhich we at once understand. What is amazing is that so much is stillaccessible, and that by adapting the delivery of lines, and giving some visualclues, performers can make the plays work today.
Thedivision of plays into five acts is more apparent to the dramatist (to whom itgives an idea of how the play’s narrative structure will appear in performance)than to the audience (though modern audiences often know act and scenenumbers). For the student (you), the numbering of acts and scenes is ofenormous importance in identifying a given point in the narrative. When quotinga passage, always give act and scene number, while line numbers are helpful,too./>
Thisplay is a comedy. Shakespeare first informs the audience of the (very serious)problems of the young lovers, and of the fairy king and queen, counter pointedby the less serious (to us) problems of the mechanicals in presenting their “play”.By bringing the different groups of characters together in the wood, the authoris able to show how the characters become more confused, before Puck, at theend of Act 3 separates the young lovers, the antidote to the love-in-idlenessjuice is given to Lysander, and in 4.1 Titania is also “cured” before thelovers are found by Theseus, and Bottom wakes with a hazy recollection of his “dream”(which may be no less articulate than the lovers’ attempts to recall what hashappened in the wood).
Mostof Act 5 is superfluous to the main plot, but indispensable as comic comment onthe potential for tragedy in the love of passionate young couples. Act 5 is notjust an epilogue, however: the action of the three principal fairies inblessing the newly-weds, and the children to be conceived is a necessaryconclusion to the misunderstandings which have gone before. Here, as in Theseus’kindly advice to Hermia in 1.1 (“Know of your youth, examine well your blood…”),in Titania’s long exposition of the results of her quarrel with Oberon (2.1)and in the joy with which the fairies “rock the ground whereon these sleepersbe” (4.1), we see the play’s real and serious concern with fertility in thenatural world, and in the world of men and their rulers, a concern which theElizabethan audience would feel very strongly. />/> 2.1.2The introductory significance of the first act
Inthe beginning of the play a number of important relationships are established,and much narrative information is given. But we see some of the themes of theplay examined, and there is interest in the action and language; for thesereasons the scene could be chosen by examiners. The scene can be divided into anumber of episodes:
· Theseus’and Hippolyta’s preparations for marriage;
· Egeus’complaint and Hermia’s defence before Theseus;
· thedialogue of the two lovers and Lysander’s plan for escape;
· theirdisclosure of the plan to Helena;
· Helena'ssoliloquy about love.
It will beseen that the scene is marked by various exits and entrances, so thatparticular groupings can be contrived. At other points, as when Theseus speaksto Hermia, others remain on stage, but are at best witnesses of something moreintimate.
Asthe play is concerned with depicting conflict in love, in severalrelationships, we meet here two of the four principal pairs or groups:
· Theseusand Hippolyta: They have been at odds but are now reconciled, and their maturitycontrasts with the passion of youth;
· thefour young lovers who are to have such strange experiences in the wood.[3]
Whenwe next meet Demetrius and Helena (2.1) and Lysander and Hermia (2.2) we needlittle explanation to know where they are and why. The wood is brieflymentioned here as a most pleasant place by day, and imagined (209 ff.) asequally pleasant by Night’s: we, and the lovers, are unprepared for the dangerand activity we will later see in this wood[4].
Shakespeareopens with a very formal, ceremonial procession, marked by the dignity, balanceand stateliness of speech of the ruler and his consort; this is almost at oncedisturbed by the angry tirade of Egeus and the barbed exchanges of the youngmen. Between these, we find an intimate exchange which contrasts with thepublic quality of the procession and Egeus’ complaint. Here Theseus tries avery direct and honest appeal to Hermia’s judgement, keeping his authority as ameans of last resort, and playing for time, though Hermia’s outspokennessalmost frustrates this. We are struck by Hermia’s boldness (allowing for hersex, her youth and Theseus’ status) which Shakespeare renders more plausible byher own apology for the “power” which emboldens her. We are also struck byTheseus’ reluctance to command, his readiness to reason; while this briefexchange goes on, the others on stage are peripheral: the whole stage areacould be used to show the opposition between the rivals, as Egeus commands eachto “stand forth”. Theseus and Hippolyta probably occupy a central, raisedposition, even perhaps sitting on chairs (to represent thrones). For theexchange with Hermia, Theseus will come forward, perhaps leading her by thehand, so that their conversation is shared with the audience. Theseus’ gravityand diplomacy are in sharp contrast to the heated words which follow. In orderthat tempers may cool before he probes the seriousness of Demetrius’ new-foundlove for Hermia and dropping of Helena, Theseus leads away the angry father andhis favorite. In her words to her lover, we again see Hermia in an intimatesituation, but her forceful yet dignified answers to the duke are here replacedby a less restrained manner. She and Lysander speak in tones which would becomic if not delivered with such force. The arrival of Helena does not curtailthis: she, too, speaks with passion and seems to lack a sense of proportion.There is some variety (but there will be more anon) in the verse form here. Toachieve a mood of seriousness in the opening, the playwright uses blank verse.(Blank verse accounts for most of the text in most of Shakespeare’s plays, butis used much more sparingly in this play). This is sustained until Helena’sarrival, after which the characters speak in rhyming couplets. These arenaturally more suited to comic moods and to the rapid imparting of narrativeinformation. A number of other features should be noted. Left alone on stage,Lysander and Hermia speak in an over-wrought manner, marked by such phrases as “Hownow, my love” or “Ay me” (verbal sighs, almost) and the stichomythia (verbalfencing) of the six alternately-spoken lines beginning with “O” and “Or”,leading to the famous comment about “the course of true love”. This technique,with the further embellishment of rhyme, is used again when Hermia and Helenaspeak (194 ff.) of Demetrius. Helena’s soliloquy is notable for the repeatedreference to “Cupid” (“a child”, “as boys…the boy”). She claims that love isblind, and yet seems herself “blind” to her own mistakes: she fawns onDemetrius, when she should play hard to get, and now intends to help him – forthe brief benefit of sharing his company – to prevent the escape of her rivalin his affections. But the most striking image in the scene, and the mosttouching, is that chosen by Theseus and echoed by Hermia, in lines 76 to 79, in which the theme of maternity (“the rose distilled”) is contrasted with the noble sacrifice ofperpetual virginity, the “rose” which “withering on the virgin thorn/Grows,lives and dies in single blessedness”. To which the retort comes: “So will Igrow, so live, so die”, rather than yield to Demetrius’ claim. />
3.1.2 The opposition and controversy of humanstandings as the major theme of the second act
Theshort scene (1.2) in which we meet the “mechanicals” (workmen) has prepared usfor the notion that the lovers will not be alone in the woods. In fact, they donot meet the workmen there (but in Theseus’ house in Act 5). Both lovers andmechanicals will encounter the fairies, and it is they whom we see here for thefirst time. In the play’s second act, we see how Lysander’s and Hermia’sattempt to solve their problems (coupled with Helena’s attempt to ingratiateherself with Demetrius, and Oberon’s actions – in his own behalf and Helena’s)leads to greater confusion, which will reach a climax in 3.2.
Thescene divides effectively into two parts:
· in thefirst the quarrel between Oberon and Titania is presented,
· in thesecond, Oberon witnesses Helena’s rejection by Demetrius, and resolves to helpher.
We can furtherdivide the scene into episodes, as follows: Puck’s descriptions (of Oberon’sand Titania’s quarrel and of himself); Oberon’s confrontation with Titania,leading to his plan to take the Indian changeling from her; Demetrius’ pursuit ofthe lovers, and his flight from Helena; Oberon’s descriptions (of Titania’sbower and how he and Puck are to use the magical flower juice). In this scene,the language so effectively supports the action that these must be consideredtogether. The fairy, like all of Titania’s attendants, uses short rhyming lines(spoken here, sung elsewhere) and Puck replies in rhyming couplets. This is hisnormal form of speech (whether in pentameters or tetrameters; the latter ismore markedly rhythmic and suited to the casting of spells, though note themore musical and varied rhyme used at the end of 3.2). Puck’s speech is livelyand indicates his sense of the ridiculous. It is well that the less seriouspassage in which he describes his pranks comes after the account of Oberon’sand Titania’s quarrel. This allows a sharper contrast from the levity of “amerrier hour” to the seriousness of “Ill met by moonlight”. (It is only withthe couplets which mark Helena’s and Demetrius’ exits that rhyme is resumed.)Here the blank verse has a dignity in keeping with the status of thedisputants, and with the effects of their dispute. The scornfulness of theopening exchanges resembles that of the rivals in 1.1, but the rivalry is of anotherkind: Titania, as Oberon’s consort, perhaps should (and ultimately will) giveway, but she is a powerful spirit, certainly Oberon’s match in verbal argument;indeed, here she has the better of the exchanges, and it is Oberon’s cunningand Puck’s stealth which bring about the eventual reconciliation. The ratherfrenetic opening exchanges give way to fairly lengthy passages of description:of the alteration of the weather, caused by the fairies’ quarrel, and of thehistory of the child Oberon seeks. The lack of direct action may be partlyoffset by the very picturesque quality of the language, while in the firstpassage, the Elizabethan audience would doubtless be most concerned about theloss of fertility in field and fold: town dwellers would well imagine (and somemay have experienced) what happens when the supply of food from the country isshort. Some gesture and/or mimicry of the “votaress” may be provided byTitania; in any case, static positions on stage in this episode could be usedto show the opposition of Oberon and Titania. Oberon’s intimacy with hisconfidant, Puck, allows another long description of what could not possibly bedepicted on stage (how Cupid’s bolt missed its target and hit theLove-in-Idleness), after which Puck leaves to bring the magic flower to hismaster. The brief soliloquy explains to what use the flower will be put,thereby preparing us for Puck’s inspired elaboration on Oberon’s original plan.More important, in a way, are the three brief words: “I am invisible”. From nowon either Oberon or Puck or both will be on stage for long periods of action:unseen and unheard (save when Puck mimics the young men) by the mortals theywatch, they are seen and heard by the audience, whom they take into theirconfidence. Oberon’s tic as the unseen protector of men is as important as hissolution of his own domestic problems. What he sees is this: Helena fawns onDemetrius, who spurns her. His conduct may not surprise a modern audience butis not at all gallant, in one of his social class: admittedly, he is sorelyprovoked, and in a situation where (he thinks) there is no third party to judgehim. Desperate to rid himself of Helena, he speaks of the opportunity she hasgiven him to ravish her; doubtless accompanying the words with menacinggestures suggestive of the deed. Helena’s response shows she has no fear ofthis; perhaps her actions indicate a readiness for Demetrius to ravish her, forhe at once declares that he will run from her (Helena’s comments on Apollo andDaphne showing how silly this reversal of must appear). The whole of theinterlude between Demetrius and Helena, considered as speech alone, isperfectly clear, but rather dull. It is obvious that it must be animated insome way, as by the actions of threatened violence, of pursuit and retreat, aswell as by Oberon’s silent watching. Oberon signals his intention to punishDemetrius, and orders Puck to affect this, but this information is subordinatedto the set-piece description of Titania’s bower. From a narrative point of view,this tells us where Titania is when we see her (within a few lines of this). AsShakespeare writes for a theatre in which the stage and properties are simple,the fey, magical atmosphere of the bower can only be established by such meansas this word-picture, followed by Titania’s speech and the fairies’ lullaby inthe next scene. />
The scene 2follows without interruption of time it seems, though we have moved to the partof the wood which Oberon has just described, as we know from Titania’s being there.The juice of the love-in-idleness is administered by Oberon: he suggests thatTitania will be woken by some wild beast, but does not foresee the arrival ofthe mechanicals in 3.1. When they arrive, and perform so near to Titania, theaudience may well guess what Puck will do. It may not at once occur to us whenOberon tells Puck that he will “know the man” i.e. Demetrius “by the Atheniangarments he hath on” that Lysander is somewhere in the wood and answers thedescription, but when Puck finds Lysander and Hermia sleeping apart, we seethat Puck makes an honest mistake. Lysander’s instant infatuation with Helenawill be matched by that of Demetrius, to whom Oberon will give the magic juicein 3.2 leading to the confusion which Puck partly foresees (3.2, line 118).Lysander’s protestation of loyalty to Hermia is about to be belied. We do notblame Lysander for the suddenness of what occurs, but in a more general sensesuch promises, especially when made by young people, seem very rash: who knowswhat may happen in future? This is a relatively brief scene. A short interludein which Titania is sung to sleep, allowing Oberon to give her the flower-juice(she sleeps on, he exits) leads to the arrival of the young lovers, who arelost, and lie down to sleep, allowing Puck to make his mistake; Helena, failingto catch Demetrius, sees Lysander and wakes him, with the predictable comicresult, and he leaves with Helena (she has not seen Hermia, who wakes alone,having dreamt of a serpent). Whereas the previous scene, though marked byplenty of action, has space for much vivid description and poetic variety, thisscene is more economical and swift-paced with lots of dramatic business done.The lullaby is beautiful and delicate but this brief interlude rapidly givesOberon his opportunity; he tells us in a few lines what he is doing (we shouldremember, but if we do not, then the action alone may not be obvious) and atonce leaves the stage to the lovers; there is no time even to change the scene,so Titania must remain on the stage. (She is woken neither by the young nobles,nor by the mechanicals; this is not improbable: Bottom wakes her because hesings so loudly, to keep his spirits up.) Although the lovers exchange somepleasantries, they lie down to sleep without any more delay than is inevitablycaused by Lysander’s mild attempt to share Hermia’s sleeping-place; theappearances, first of Puck, who gives the flower-juice to Lysander, then ofDemetrius, who almost at once runs off, then of Helena mark, if anything anacceleration in the already rapid pacing of the scene. This is in keeping withthe swift movement through the wood of Oberon and Puck (“Through the foresthave I gone”) and the breathless pursuit of Demetrius by Helena. When shedeclares “I am out of breath”, the audience shares her sense of the need torest awhile. While she is doing this she notices Lysander (but does not thinkto enquire after Hermia; Helena is, after all, an accessory to the lovers’plan!) Lysander’s speech to Helena (“And run through fire I will for thy sweetsake…”) is gloriously extravagant (it has a delightful counterpart in Demetrius’words to Helena on waking in 3.2). The humour depends upon Lysander’s beingwholly earnest, genuinely repelled by the thought of Hermia, and at once tryingto rationalize his new love. The scene has great linguistic variety: the briefblank verse instruction of Titania to her fairies is followed by the delicaterhyme of the lullaby, which is, of course, sung. The sentinel fairy’s coupletis in the same meter (tetrameter) used by Oberon and shortly after by Puck.After an opening alternately-rhymed quatrain from Lysander, he and Hermia speakin couplets, as do Demetrius and Helena; and this metre, save for Puck’s briefspeech, and are sustained for the rest of the scene. There is other evidence ofverbal patterning: the fairies in the lullaby order snakes, hedgehogs and otherunwelcome creatures to “come not near our Fairy Queen”; Oberon tells her towake when some animal (he gives a list) is near, and Helena later likensherself to one of the more fearful woodland creatures on Oberon’s list – “uglyas a bear”. The verbal fencing we have seen earlier from Hermia and Lysanderappears again: here Lysander uses his wit at once to suggest he is innocent ofany improper intent and yet also to speak seductively. (His readiness to admithe is lost may have this ulterior motive.) In the previous scene Demetriustries to bluff Helena with threatened seduction but she calls his bluff; hereLysander probably half intends to attempt seduction but Hermia rebukes himgently. He engages in word-games with the words “one” (lines 40, 41), “heart”(46,47) and “bosoms” (48, 49). Hermia cuts through this very effectively with “Lysanderriddles very prettily”. She observes how linguistic virtuosity is used toattempt seduction. By telling him she knows what he is trying to do, sheobliges him to stop! When Lysander addresses Helena in such excessive terms,the point Hermia has made is beautifully illustrated: that language may be used“prettily” but without meaning or honesty. This is shown in Lysander’srepetition of the words used minutes earlier –“bosom” and “heart” – in one line(104). The repeated use of the word “reason” (114-121) also suggests one of thethemes of the play. We will hear more of “reason and love” anon. Note thatwhile Lysander’s words, taken at face value, or applied by a mature man to arational choice of partner (Theseus, perhaps?) might be persuasive, and while,as a matter of plain fact “reason” might well show Helena to be worthier thanHermia (though not on the evidence we have so far seen) in this case we knowthat Lysander’s comments are wholly free of reason. This is not to say that hisearlier choice of Hermia is any more reasonable. In fact, the truly reasonableman will recognize (as Theseus does in 5.1, line 4 on, and as Bottom withunusual prescience states more succinctly in 3.1, 141-2) that love is a part ofman’s experience which is never subject to reason. Finally, note how Hermia, onwaking, returns to the motif of the dangerous or vile animal, in her case bydreaming of the suitably treacherous serpent./>
4.1.2Theme of love and its interpretation in the third act
We know fromthe short Act 1, scene 2 that the workmen have planned to tritium their play ofPyramus and Thisbe in the wood. Conveniently they come to the place justvacated by Hermia, where Titania still lies asleep. (The workmen hope thattheir play will be performed for Theseus, but we learn from 5.1, that there aremany rival attractions: theirs will be chosen because of its amusing(contradictory) title and Philostrate’s harsh comments.)Puck, at first amusedby the crudity of the acting, sees how to perfect Oberon’s plan for Titania.Titania’s instant infatuation with Bottom parallels that of Lysander (in thelast scene) and Demetrius (in the next) with Helena. Oberon tells Puck (in 4.1)that Titania has readily given up the changeling boy to him. The sight of hisqueen’s doting on “this hateful fool” awakens a sense of tenderness in Oberon,leading to a renewal of their love, while Bottom’s strange experience leads tohis puzzled soliloquy and his seeming-miraculous return to his fellows in 4.2.Pyramus and Thisbe, as performed by the mechanicals in 5.1, is a perfectcommentary on how “the course of true love” has run, hitherto, for the younglovers. Structure is a fairly simple scene structurally: the workmen’srehearsal ends when Puck gives Bottom the ass’s head; Bottom’s efforts to keephis spirits up wake Titania, who declares her love for the bemused Bottom andcommands her fairies to minister to him. There is much to admire here, butespecially
· thecontrast between the grossness and clumsy speech of Bottom and the elegance,beauty and majesty of Titania,
· andthe questions raised by Pyramus and Thisbe as to what constitutes a good play.[5]
Atfirst the scene is rather static: the workmen honestly try to solve their own “theatricalproblems”; although Bottom is overbearing at times, his essential good natureand his friends’ respect mean that the “players” (in contrast with the fouryoung lovers and the fairy rulers) work harmoniously, though the result oftheir labors is fatuous. The acting of Pyramus and Thisbe requires movement on(and off) the stage. The “hawthorn brake” could well be off the real stage (so,ironically, the supposed “tiring house” of the workmen could be provided by thereal tiring house in the theatre) as the ass’s head must be placed on Bottomoff stage, between lines 86 and 102 (see stage directions).
Quince’scomments indicate how the play is being performed:
“Thisbe, stand forth…he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again…youmust not speak that yet…Pyramus, enter». Puck’s “I’ll follow you…” speech isapparently not heard by Bottom, otherwise “Why do they run away?” makes nosense. The speech is evidently to inform the audience and invites mimicry, bothin sound and movement, of the animals Puck names. Titania’s promise to makeBottom move “like an airy spirit” is not likely to prove true (as Oberon’s andher own comments in 4.1 shows). The regal, graceful movement of Titania and thedelicacy of her fairies contrast with the robustness and “mortal grossness” ofBottom. Bottom is soon at ease in his strange situation, and speaks to Titaniaand the fairies with the same familiarity he shows to Theseus in 5.1. Fordifferent reasons neither ruler takes offence, but Shakespeare’s audience wouldfeel a frisson of danger at the seeming impertinence. The proper (appropriate)attitude to someone of Titania’s or Theseus’ status is awed reverence of thekind the duke describes in 5.1, 93-105. Only a fool would fail to see this.When the fool wears an ass’s head, the impertinence seems greater. Here aresome reasons why this will amuse the audience:
· Theass’s head is a visible symbol, and so, theatrically effective;
· “Ass”and “ass-head” are both used as synonyms of stupidity in the 16thcentury;
· theass is obstinate and (thought) clumsy and ugly;
· it isa beast of burden, suggestive of Bottom’s “mechanical” (menial) status;
· thepronunciation of the word allows a pun on “are”, suggested by Bottom’s name.(He is called “Bottom”, as he is a weaver; “weaver’s bottom” like “housemaid’sknee” was a well-known medical condition. It is a kind of stichomythic straininjury – isocheimal bursitis in Latin);[6]
· andOberon has intended that Titania should love a beast.
The rudeeveryday speech of the workmen, embellished by Bottom’s and Quince’s errors, isto be contrasted with the stilted (unnatural) attempts at eloquence in Pyramusand Thisbe (compounded by mispronunciation) and with the very real eloquence ofTitania. The informality of the workmen’s language is shown in their normallyspeaking in prose, with commonplaces such as “by’r lakin”, “not a whit”, “well”,“nay” and “ay”. Bottom also contributes “more better” and “saying thus, or tothe same defect” (for “effect”) while Quince manages “disfigure” (for “figure”)and “to see a noise”. The simple folk-song crudely sung by Bottom is in sharpcontrast to the delicate lullaby which has lulled Titania to sleep. Herreaction “What angel wakes me…?” and “Mine ear is much enamoured of thy note”is comically incongruous. There is further comic contrast between Titania’sverse, rhymed after her first waking speech, and Bottom’s prose: the one iseloquent, stately and (in any other context) dignified; the other homely andhumble. We fear that Bottom will commit some gross breach of etiquette, but heis saved by Titania’s infatuation. Titania’s power is also shown in theceremonial order of the fairies’ responses to her (160) and Bottom (172). Incontrast with Lysander’s implausible claim to love Helena according to reason,Bottom notes with unusual perception that “reason and love keep little companytogether nowadays”, as if his present case were but an extreme illustration ofa general truth, with which the audience concurs. His suggestion (that “honestneighbours” should “make them friends”) may also hint at the activities ofTheseus and Oberon in trying to resolve the problems of those made unreasonableby love. Bottom, because he is uneducated, is prone to errors in speech,especially when trying to impress. But as this and the “Bottom’s dream” speech(in 4.1) show, he is capable of real intelligence, which may account for theregard in which his friends hold him. Finally note the contrast between the feydelicacy of the fairies’ names and the errands they are to perform, and thepractical, homely comments of Bottom who thinks of the medical use of thecobweb and the culinary merits of peas and mustard. />
Act 3, scene 2This is the longest scene in the play; indeed it is longer than any of the play’sother acts. The sport Puck unintentionally causes – but greatly enjoys –reaches a climax, which might prove fatal but for his intervention; at the endof the scene he tells the audience that “all shall be well”, and this leadsnaturally to the reconciliation of the rivals in the next act, and thecelebration of the threefold nuptials in Act 5. This is such a long scene thatthe structure in episodes can be hard to follow; in fact, it is not verycomplex if one notes that almost half of the scene is taken up with oneextended episode (as long as the whole performance, in Act 5, of Pyramus andThisbe).
· Puckexplains to Oberon what he has done;
· seeingDemetrius and Hermia (where and how has she found him?) Puck learns of hiserror;
· he isto fetch Helena (and, therefore, Lysander, too) while the flower juice is given(by Oberon – there is no stage direction, but he tells us what he is doing) toDemetrius, who wakes at the sound of Helena’s voice and declares his love;
· theconfusion is completed by the return of Hermia (it is dark, but she has heardLysander’s voice);
· whenthe arguments threaten to turn to physical violence, Puck, commanded by Oberon,uses his skills in mimicry to separate the four, though eventually leading eachto a sleeping place near the others. He puts in Lysander’s eyes the antidote(given him by Oberon) to the flower juice, and leaves the lovers sleeping.
The centralepisode here is perhaps the most amusing part of the play, but the humour is ofa wholly different kind from that provided by the mechanicals. The workmen areobviously comic because of their class, their speech and their notions ofacting. By contrast, the four lovers are characters of some status and dignity,whose situation in itself is very far from amusing. In the first scene thelovers are amusing in their tendency to sensationalize their predicament, toclaim for themselves a tragic grandeur. Here, however, we are entertained bythe plight of each character, both because we know so much more than he or shedoes, and because we see, and the lovers do not, how and why their own attemptsto understand their predicament are utterly mistaken. Lysander recalls that heloved Hermia but is now repelled by her, and can only see his former love as anerror of judgement. Demetrius has had the same experience, but is able torevert to his even earlier claim to Helena’s love. Neither man can understandwhy Helena disbelieves his protestations. It seems that each believes theother, however: having been bitter rivals for Hermia’s hand, they now bring thesame rivalry to the pursuit of Helena. Helena loves Demetrius still, butassumes that his and Lysander’s courtship of her is a cruel elaboration ofDemetrius’ earlier rejection; the men, though enemies, must hate her so muchthat they have agreed to offer ironic praise. Hermia’s outrage Helena takes tobe part of the game; “she is one of this confederacy”. Hermia is genuinelypuzzled by Lysander’s sudden change of heart, but believes Helena to be atfault. An ambiguous insult (“puppet”; Helena means “counterfeit” but Hermiathinks she refers to her size) gives Hermia a reason for Lysander’sinconstancy. The scene requires energy and much action in the performance: thetwo men are fawning on Helena, while in part struggling with each other; yetthey must keep breaking off from this to defend Helena from Hermia. Helena istrying to hold off the men, and escape Hermia’s attacks. Hermia wants toassault Helena but is restrained by the men. All the while Oberon and Puck arewatching, invisible to the mortals.Eventually the desire to settle theirrivalry causes the men to leave the women alone, whereupon Helena runs awayfrom Hermia, and Puck is able to intervene. Without this, the scene could havegone on for ever, but Shakespeare has allowed time to exploit fully its comicpotential. It is essential, in the acting, that the performers do not exhibitself-consciousness or any sense of irony about their ridiculous situation. Themen believe as they do because they are drugged; Helena’s response is quite arational one; Hermia’s less so, but she can see no other, more simple,explanation. In any case, all of them are passionate people, whose motives forbeing in the wood are not conducive to calm or reason; they may be tired, theyare in an unfamiliar place (this is not the wood as described in 1.1) and asmuch in the dark metaphorically as literally. Heated and excitable behavior isexactly what one would expect, and Puck has seen it coming. Before the men gooff to fight, some violence will be threatened in gesture. As each tries tofind the other, he may strike at shadows. We know they are to use swords, asPuck, in Demetrius’ voice, calls out (402) that he is “drawn and ready”. Mostof the scene is rhymed verse, but in mid-speech Helena (195) switches to blankverse. As with the fairies in 2.1, this indicates a greater seriousness in thefour lovers’ dispute. As the threatened violence descends into farcical pursuitit is Helena again (340) who picks up the rhyme. In general the lovers usepentameters arranged as couplets, but more elaborate patterns are used forparticular purposes: Lysander and Helena speak in six-line stanzas when theycome on stage; with the next two lines (a couplet) they form a sonnet in effect.The same six-line stanza is used by Helena and Hermia at the end of the scene,though for Hermia the metre is subtly varied (suggesting her exhaustion) with “Neverso weary, never so in woe”. The fairies use both pentameter and tetrameter, anda more fluid verse form (lines varying in length) for Puck’s final speech.Although the men trade insults and go off to fight, the most sharp verbalexchanges are between Helena and Hermia. Helena speaks at length of their pastfriendship, accusing Hermia on treachery. Helena’s calling Hermia a “puppet”leads to a series of insults, mostly from the men, at the expense of Hermia’sstature and dark coloring. To this Hermia responds by calling Helena a “paintedmaypole”. Many of the best lines in the scene are Puck’s: the final speech andthe earlier “Lord, what fools these mortals be” stand out. On Hermia’s exit(line 344) Puck’s and Oberon’s exchange is used to describe the passing of the Night’s,preparing us for the hunting in the next act. It also means that Puck must act “inhaste” while the darkness he needs to mislead the men lasts. Two other parts ofthe dialogue are worthy of note. Demetrius’ “goddess, nymph, perfect, divine”and what follows (137ff.; quoted by Helena at 226-7) matches, if it does notsurpass, Lysander’s “And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake” in 2.2.Helena’s “O weary Night’s, O long and tedious Night’s” could almost be takenfrom Pyramus and Thisbe (compare 5.1, 167-9). Helena (not the Night’s) is weary(the epithet is transferred) and it is her speech here which is tedious. In theaudience’s view it is a good thing for the Night’s to end now, but it has beenfar from tedious! />
5.1.2Act4: the approaching of climax
In the Act 4,scene 1 what Puck promises in 3.2 (“Jack shall have Jill/Naught shall go ill”)comes to pass:
· Thelovers’ relationships are amicably resolved, though there remains confusionabout what has happened in the Night’s;
· Oberonand Titania are reconciled,
· andBottom is restored to his normal condition.
Onlytwo tasks are left for the last act: these are to celebrate the threefoldwedding, and for the fairies to bless the three couples with fertility, andtheir children, about to be conceived, with good health. In most of Shakespeare’scomedies the comic resolution does not occur until the last act; here allhostilities are ended by the middle of the penultimate act. The scene easilybreaks down into a series of short episodes which have a clear narrativesequence, corresponding to the characters who are speaking. With the exceptionof Puck, everyone whom we know to be in the wood is on stage (somewhere)!
· Bottom,led on stage by Titania and her train, continues to enjoy the treatmentaccorded him in 3.1;
· as heand Titania sleep, Puck arrives to be told by the watching Oberon that he nowhas the Indian boy;
· Titania,given the antidote (“Dian’s bud”) and woken, is repelled by the sight of Bottom(whom Puck is told to return to his proper appearance), but dances joyfullywith Oberon;
· asthey depart, Theseus, Hippolyta and Egeus appear, ready for the hunt;
· theirfinding and waking of the lovers leads to a confused account of their presence,but a very clear statement of Demetrius’ love for Helena, allowing Theseus to “overbear”Egeus’ choice of Demetrius, and favor the two couples with a joint weddingceremony (an honor which should compensate Egeus for any loss of face);
· everyoneelse having at length left the wood, Bottom wakes, and has the stage to himselffor his virtuoso prose soliloquy.
As notedabove, this scene is remarkable for the number of characters on stage, andmovements must take account of this. As it is now daylight, the sleepers willbe seen by anyone who comes near them. When Bottom and Titania come on stage,they must, therefore avoid the lovers. Titania’s words describe her actions asdoes Bottom’s asking Mustardseed to help Cobweb scratch his face: Titania seesthe “sleek smooth head” and “fair large ears” but loves Bottom because, ratherthan in spite, of these. There is continued humour in the incongruity here:offered fairy music, Bottom calls for “the tongs and the bones”; when Titaniaoffers a dainty delicacy (“the squirrel’s hoard”), Bottom seeks huge quantitiesof animal fodder. When Titania comes to her senses, her dancing with Oberon isvery important: their movement in time to the fairy music and rhythmic verseanticipates their activity in the next act. To “rock the ground” is what theyhave for long failed to do (with the dire results described by Titania in2.1).Theseus and Hippolyta come on stage as the fairy king and queen leave it:this order is reversed in the next act; in each case we recognize a symmetry inthe two pairs of rulers. The duke and his consort seek a vantage-point fromwhich to watch the hunt. For obvious reasons the audience will not see thehounds, so a word-picture is required; once the lovers are found, the huntingcan be “set aside”. Theseus evidently approaches the part of the stage wherethe young lovers (but not Bottom) sleep. “But soft, what nymphs are these?” maybe ironic (he would recognize them if he looked) but he may not have a clearview. Egeus is able to identify his own daughter, and the others, and has tostate the obvious in voicing his surprise at “their being here together” (thesurprise is as much at their being “together”, as in the wood at all). When thelovers wake, their words are in striking contrast to their previous waking: in theNight’s both Lysander and Demetrius have woken instantly, filled with certainlove for Helena; now both are hesitant, unsure what to say. We have not seeneither of them exhibit such careful introspection nor attempt to be soconciliatory before. But Demetrius’ renewal of love for Helena solves Theseus’problem. He cannot confirm Egeus’ choice because Demetrius cannot (unlikeHermia) be compelled to marry against his will. So Egeus is over-ruled and theAthenian law has not been compromised. Bottom,on waking, experiences equalconfusion, if not greater. Where the young lovers have no idea why theiraffections have altered so radically (and back, in Lysander’s case), Bottom hashad sight of the fairy world, but will find it difficult now to believe. He attemptsto put his “dream” in words but is unequal to the task, though he hopes PeterQuince may be able to turn it into a ballad. If the action of the scene ismarked by waking, the language is marked by references to dreaming. Oberonsuggests (line 70) that Bottom and the lovers will think of “this Night’s’saccidents” as “the fierce vexation of a dream”, while Titania wakes believingshe has had “visions”. Lysander, speaking to Theseus thinks he is “half sleep,half waking”, Hermia thinks she is seeing double (a faithless and a faithfulLysander?) and has already dreamed of Lysander’s watching a serpent eat herheart away. Demetrius suggests they are still dreaming, but sees he must beawake when he realizes that the other three have seen and heard the same thingsas himself. Bottom’s soliloquy repeats the word “dream” six times and alsorefers to a “vision”. He does not attempt to describe what he has seen,suggesting that only a “patched fool” (that is, a jester or “professional”Fool) would attempt it. (A Fool of this kind would have the learning and witindeed to explain the dream.) Saint Paul’s comment on spiritual gifts is calledin evidence, but as usual Bottom assigns sense-experiences, not to the organswhich experience them, but to others. He and Quince confuse sight and soundelsewhere (Quince in 3.1, 90; Bottom in 5.1, 188-9). This idea of the events inthe wood as a dream, is continued in the next act: Hippolyta argues that thecommon elements in what the lovers say indicate that something odd occurred.Later, Puck, in speaking the epilogue will argue that the play is the audience’s,as much as the performers’, dream. />
6.1.2The post-climax of the comedy
All loose endsof the plot have already been tied; what happens in the scene we already know,save for the selection of the workmen’s play, which is not surprising. The playis a celebration of marriage:
· the “tragicalmirth” of Pyramus and Thisbe in its original story points to the dangers ofpassionate love, from which our lovers have been delivered;
· in itsdialogue and performance, it shows that creating dramatic narrative is not foramateurs;
· but inits well-meaning presentation to the newly-weds it proves Theseus right in hisclaim that “…never any thing can be amiss/When simpleness and duty tender it”.
The presenceof the mechanicals at the wedding feast reflects the connected or organicnature of hierarchical society, and identifies the good ruler with his loyalsubjects. A far more serious celebration follows: the fairies, led by theirking and queen and the inevitable Puck, bring to the bedchambers the fertility,and to the children, in due course, the good health which all those in the audiencewould wish to enjoy. This is remarkably simple, but is formally arranged:
· thediscussion of the lovers’ “dreams” at the start of the scene mirrors Puck’sdescription of the audience’s slumbering “while these visions did appear”;
· thehilarious and good-natured entertainment at the wedding-feast gives way to amore serious, but equally joyful, blessing by the fairies;
· reversingthe order in 4.1, Theseus’ exit is followed moments later by the entrance ofthe fairy king: day gives way to Night’s, earthly rule to that of the goodspirits, as Theseus understands in urging retirement to bed, not because he isimpatient, or overwhelmed with desire, but because: “’T is almost fairy time”.[7]
Theopening of the scene is quite intimate: Theseus speaks seriously to Hippolyta(he is not inhibited by the presence of so trusted a servant as Philostrate; aruler of his standing would rarely be alone with another person). The episodeis fairly static to allow the debate to be heard, but the arrival of the fouryoung newly-weds brings Theseus to a consideration of the short-listedentertainments for his wedding-feast. He is given a written list of these,which he reads, evidently for the first-time, half aloud, half to himself. Hisinterest in Pyramus and Thisbe alarms Philostrate, who tries to dissuade him.When this “play” is performed, we see exaggerated histrionic gestures, and suchredundant devices as actors playing the wall, moonshine and the lion. Thesethree introduce themselves and explain what they are doing (the wall alsoexplains his exit from the stage). Bottom and Starveling both step out ofcharacter to address their audience directly. For other clues to the nature ofthe action we must look to the remarks of Theseus and his guests. After thebergomask dance, and the departure of the nobles, we see the far more skilfuldancing of the fairies, by means of which they enact their magic. At last, theactor playing Puck steps half out of character to address the audience; to dothis he will come to the front of the stage, and end by calling for applause.The set-piece discussion of imagination, especially of “the lunatic, the lover,and the poet” is the last in series of commentaries on reason and love whichruns through the whole drama. The long speeches, in tetrameter couplets, ofOberon, Titania and Puck, perfectly fit their r”le here of beneficent andmagical spirits. Throughout this play, Shakespeare has used enomous variety ofverse forms and prose: almost always these perfectly fit their dramaticcontext, whether for carrying narrative, expressing argument, meditation on anidea, describing what we cannot see or casting a spell. We often laugh atcharacters, but we never laugh at the dramatist’s control of his medium. Lestwe take this for granted, Pyramus and Thisbe serves as a corrective. We seehere what happens when rhetorical devices and rhyme are used mechanically andwithout sensitivity. Quince’s garbling of the punctuation makes the Prologueless intelligibl;e but no less pompous and windy. We find weak rhymes (“Thisbe/secretly”;“sinister/whisper”), excessive use of “O” (167 ff., but we have caught thelovers doing this before, if to a less degree), crude stichomythia (191-200)and tongue-tying alliteration (“Quail, crush, conclude and quell” or “Comeblade my breast imbrue”).Shakespeare shows clearly in the rest of the play howto avoid lines which the actor cannot speak, unless the character is knowinglyplaying with sound effects) and simple inaccuracy, especially where terms havebeen mixed up (“I see a voice”; “Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams”;“These lily lips,/This cherry nose,/These yellow cowslip cheeks”). The play isnot so bad that the workmen cannot plausibly take pride in it. But the educatednobles can see its faults readily. Of course, we can see skill in itscomposition: Shakespeare has contrived the verse form, so that errors andcrudities are pointed by the rhymes, and the whole has a rollicking metricalenergy which exactly matches the gusto of the inexpert but enthusiastic actors.The male and female leads have lines which are meant to give scope for theactors’ great talent: there are fairly long speeches, with overwrought climaxes.We suppose that while Bottom is cast as Pyramus because his exaggerateddelivery commands respect among the workmen, Flute is cast as Thisbe because heis the youngest man (his beard is only now beginning to grow).
Chapter 2. The brilliant majesty of Shakespeareanlanguage one the example of the comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
1.2.2 The language of Shakespeare
Althoughwe can observe features of the play’s language on the page, it should be notedthat the play was written (never published) by Shakespeare for theatricalperformance, and that effects of language are meant to be heard, as by anattentive audience they would be. Moreover, few of these effects are merely decorative;most help interpret the action on stage. In discussing the play’s language, youshould not merely list matters of interest, but should structure your commentsaccording to categories or some other arrangement. The headings under whichthis section of commentary has been arranged may help.
/>/>By narrating events, Shakespeare isable to shorten the time directly represented on stage while providing theaudience with necessary background information. Good examples of this would bePuck’s account to the fairy of his master’s quarrel with Titania, or Titania’sown account of how she came by the changeling child. Where a tale may bealready known to most of the audience, the narration can be very brief, as inTheseus’s “I wooed thee with my sword/And won thy love, doing thee injury”.More immediate events not directly shown may also be narrated, as when Pucktells the audience he has gone through the forest “But Athenian found I none”,or when Oberon tells Puck how he has met Titania, “Seeking sweet favours forthis hateful fool” (Bottom) and that she has given up the child. Description,often with an element of narration, is essential to this play.
/>Imagination is an important theme, and the playwright boldlyinitiates a debate about imagination in the latter part of the play. “The bestin this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse if imagination amendthem”, to which comes the retort that in watching Pyramus and Thisbe the “audience”must compensate for the defective imaginations of the “performers”. In theDream, as elsewhere, Shakespeare depends upon, but successfully excites, theaudience’s imagination. Things that cannot possibly be shown on stage aredescribed vividly to us. Theseinclude:
· Oberon’scelebrated “bank whereon the wild thyme blows”
· Lysander’sand Hermia’s description to Helena, in 1.1, of the moonlight and the wood;
· Helena’sdescription in 3.2 of her “school-days’ friendship” with Hermia, with itsrepeated images of “union in partition”,
· andPuck’s description of Night’s terrors at the end of the play (“Now the hungrylion roars/And the wolf behowls the moon”) contrasted with the security ofthose in Theseus’s house (“…not a mouse/Shall disturb this hallow’d house”).
A sense of thefairies’ magical power and of exoticism is established in references to remoteplaces (“the farthest steppe of India” or “the spiced Indian air”) or Puck’sability to circle the earth in “forty minutes” (much less on stage). The wood,too, is exotic and ambiguous: it is beautiful but dangerous. The description ofthese things contrasts with the more homely and familiar elements: the nativeEnglish flowers and herbs, and the folk traditions reflected in Puck’s accountof his mischief. Often narration and description are mixed. This is true of theexample cited above of Titania’s account of the “votaress” of her order, aswell as of her account of the disruption in the natural world caused by herquarrel with Oberon. Oberon, in his account of the “fair vestal, throned by thewest” also mixes narration with descriptive detail, as does Puck when heexplains to his master how “Titania wak’d and straightway loved an ass”. Thefrequent references to the wood and the moon instruct us to keep thinking ofwhat we cannot directly see, while a line such as “weeds of Athens he doth wear”explains Puck’s mistaking Lysander for Demetrius. What the playwright conveyshere is not sartorial information but the nature of Puck’s error. Lysandercould be wearing any style of clothing and we will accept what Puck says.
/>Comment is of course frequent in Shakespeare: characterscomment on their own situation, on others’ actions, or more generally. In theplay’s first act Lysander, Hermia and Helena comment on their own situation andmove on to make general statements about love. Helena’s general comments arewiser, as her own conduct is more foolish. In the final act of the play comesTheseus’s extended discussion of the imaginations of poets, lovers and madmen,while some of the most memorable comment is made pithy by its brevity: “Reasonand love keep little company together nowadays” and “Lord, what fools thesemortals be!” Theseus’s long speech on imagination is addressed ostensibly toHippolyta but has the quality of thinking aloud usually found in the soliloquy,while two other remarkable extended comment-speeches (Helena at the end of 1.1,and Bottom at the end of 4.1) are soliloquies. All of these invite the audienceto reflect, with the speaker, on the subject of his comment. In this play songshave a special place, as in The Tempest. They allow unusual verse-forms, andthese suggest to the audience the magical power that the fairies command. Forthe magic of “Cupid’s flower” and “Dian’s bud”, a rhythmic tetrameter couplet(eight syllables, or seven by omission of the unstressed syllable, but alwayswith four stresses) is used, and becomes the characteristic voice of Oberon,Puck and Titania in the latter part of the play. (In 2.1, not doing magic, butdiscussing their own affairs all three use the pentameter line, whether incouplets or blank verse.) 2.2.2Verse forms and prose dialogues of the play
Wheredialogue is not in the form of narrative, description or comment (that is, mostof the time) it carries the action of the play. Thus, in the first scene Egeusand Demetrius demand a favourable judgement, Hermia asks what her options arebut shows her seriousness, Theseus plays for time, the lovers resolve to fleefrom Athens and inform Helena who decides to betray them. The action of thenext scene, as the mechanicals prepare their play, is far less schematic: allare on stage for the whole scene, and each tries to help the common purpose,although Quince at first and subsequently Bottom have more to say.
/>To clarify what can be a confusing play, Shakespeare has usedmore variety in the form of the dialogue than in most plays. Indeed, the amountof dialogue which is in rhyme is only exceeded by the earlier comedy Love’sLabours Lost. In the Dream blank verse frequently gives way to rhymed coupletsor more elaborate stanza forms, but is used for moments of high seriousness,where the use of rhyme gives a lighter effect. Good examples of this use ofblank verse would be in the middle part of 1.1, where Theseus tests theseriousness of Hermia’s love for Lysander, 4.1, before Bottom wakes, andTheseus’s “lunatic…lover…poet” speech in 5.1. But the best example comes in2.1. Puck and the fairy have been speaking in couplets; their talk is of thehomely pranks which Puck plays, and this comes after the brief account ofOberon’s and Titania’s quarrel. Thus, the change of mood from the light-heartedcouplets about Puck’s practical jokes to the angry opposition of the fairy kingand queen is perfectly tritium by the opening outburst: “Ill met by moonlight”.We will find similar transitions elsewhere, often switching from blank verse tothe couplet to accelerate the action. At the end of 3.2, the two young womenspeak in matching six-line stanzas, while Oberon uses the same tetrameter line(twice the rhyme goes beyond a couplet) for giving love-in-idleness and laterits antidote (2.2, 26-33; 3.2, 102-109 and 4.1, 70-73). The pentameter coupletis well-suited to the low comedy of Puck’s pranks (2.1, 42 ff.) as it is to hisaccount at the start of 3.2, of how his mistress “with a monster is in love”.The same line used earnestly with no trace of irony shows how ridiculous are theprotestations of love for Helena made variously by Lysander (“TransparentHelena! Nature shows art,/That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart”) andDemetrius (“O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!/To what, my love, shall Icompare thine eyne?”). Here the line is used mechanically but it can be usedmore fluently, as in Oberon’s pastoral lyric (“I know a bank etc.”), by Titania(“Out of this wood do not desire to go”) and by Hermia (“Now I but chide, but Ishould use thee worse,/For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse”). Wenote, however, that as the young lovers’ dissension moves to passion and thethreat of violence, the playwright returns to blank verse. After Puck hassafely separated the antagonists, the impending resolution is shown by thereturn to rhymed verse: the two men speak in couplets, though Puck supplieswhole or half lines; the two women speak in a six line stanza form (which,interestingly is used in successive speeches by Lysander and Helena, in 3.2,just after Puck’s “Lord, what fools these mortals be”) and Puck concludes thescene with a song: “On the ground/Sleep sound etc.” What is striking is how thesame formal line, such as the couplet, is used to such varied dramatic effect:Puck’s homely account of mischief, the exaggerated passion of the young men orthe beautiful lyricism of Oberon’s description of Titania’s bower. Thetetrameter, always rhymed, usually in couplets, is used with less variety andonly by the fairies: in the theatre it quickly comes to suggest to the audiencea sense of magical activity, and it is the dominant verse form at the end ofthe play’s last two acts. This line is used as Oberon and Titania “rock theground whereon these sleepers be” and as they “sing and bless this place”, andit is the line used by Puck as he addresses the audience at the play’sconclusion.[8]
/>It is a mistake to think that prose, in Shakespeare’s playsis simply the limited speech of uneducated or “low” characters. (Apart fromTheseus, Hamlet, Prince Hal [in Henry IV, part i] and Romeo all speak sometimesin prose). The idea that prose is a homogeneous indicator of class is notsupported by this play, where a great variety of prose forms is used.Interestingly, even the great Theseus, addressing the mechanicals at the end oftheir performance puts them at ease by speaking in sober but wittywell-balanced prose: “Never excuse; for when the players are all dead, thereneed none to be blamed”. As the nobles watch Pyramus and Thisbe they engage inbewildering word games: “Not so, my lord, for his valour cannot carry hisdiscretion; and the fox carries the goose”…”His discretion, I am sure, cannotcarry his valour; for the goose carries not the fox”, as well as plain comment:“This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.” Humorous errors arise out ofmisuse of language: “He goes but to see a voice…”, especially the malapropism: “therewe may rehearse most obscenely” or “he comes to disfigure…the person ofMoonshine”. But the theatrical possibilities of prose are best shown in Bottom’ssoliloquy at the end of 4.1. In the confusion of Bottom’s attempt to explainhis “vision” and his garbled allusion to St. Paul, as in his perfectlyinappropriate idea that his “dream” will be written by Quince as a ballad,called “Bottom’s Dream, because it hath no bottom”, even more inappropriatelyto be sung at Thisbe’s death – here Bottom achieves a fantastical lyricism whichmatches anything that has gone before, and, because he is attempting todescribe what is deeply puzzling, the confusion of his account perfectlycorresponds to the confusion of what he has experienced: “…man is but a patchedfool if he will offer to say what methought I had”.[9]3.2.2Rhetoric, patterning and wordplay of Shakespeare’s heroes in the play
Inthe Dream Shakespeare makes frequent use of formal rhetorical devices. Anextensive list of these with their names is found in the Arden edition (pp.xlv-li). As many of these are over-wrought they are often used as expressionsof the young lovers’ exaggerated passion. Hermia’s vow (1.1, 169 and following)has a series of phrases beginning identically: “…by Cupid’s strongest bow,/Byhis best arrow with the golden head,/By the simplicity of Venus’ doves,/By thatwhich knitteth souls and prospers loves…”
Repetitionand inversion abound, and frequently one character picks up a key word fromanother’s speech: “You both are rivals and love Hermia/And now both rivals tomock Helena” (3.2, 155-6; “I would my father look’d but with my eyes.”…”Ratheryour eyes must with his judgement look” (1.1, 56-7). We have lines which beginand end with the same word: “Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh”(3.2, 131), puns “For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie” (2.2, 51) and aphorisms(pithy wise sayings): “Things base and vile, holding no quantity,/Love cantranspose to form and dignity” (1.1, 232-3). The most highly-organized sectionof the play rhetorically may well be the lines following Lysander’s dictum that“the course of true love never did run smooth” (which looks like a wise proverbbut is manifestly untrue). Here, Lysander proposes a reason why love does notrun smooth (beginning “Or”) and Hermia glosses it (in lines beginning with “O”).The effect of the stichomythia is complex and shows the playwright’s sense oftheatre. We are inclined to see how serious the lovers’ plight is, and toextend our sympathy, but the highly formal duet strikes us as slightlyartificial: we feel they are making a melodrama out of a crisis. Patterning ona larger scale is to be found in the two speeches of Oberon which attend thegiving of love-in-idleness see above). Though widely-separated each uses thesame verse form, and an identical number of lines. Patterning in six-linestanzas appear in 2.2, 122 ff. and 3.2, 431 ff. and 442 ff. Each woman uses theword “weary”; Helena rebukes the Night’s; Hermia awaits the day. Some kinds ofwordplay have already been considered above (malapropisms; misquotation of St.Paul; Lysander’s punning). One should also note the repeated use of motifwords, words which express ideas or things present throughout the play. In herfirst two lines, Hippolyta refers to “days”, and to “Night’s” which will “dreamaway the time”. Day and Night’s, time and dreams are all key ideas in the play.The moon will measure the “four days” but there is also “fairy time” to contendwith. The idea of the dream recurs with Hermia’s Night’smare of the serpent,but it is in Act 4 that is importance becomes clear, and the word is repeatedfrequently, as Titania, the young lovers and Bottom all refer to their dreams,while in the next act, Theseus attempts to explain these dreams (with barelymore success than Bottom). Puck concludes the play with his excuse that we have“slumbered here/While these visions did appear” and we are enjoined not to “reprehend”what yields no more “but a dream”. We certainly do not reprehend, but werecognize that the modesty is false. If this is “but (only) a dream” it is adream which “hath no bottom”. Other repeated motif words are those referring tothe wood and to the moon. In the latter case, by making the moon the measure oftime (according to Hippolyta), the source of light in the wood (but not much,as it has almost waned), a goddess or goddesses (Phoebe, Diana, the tripleHecate) to whom in classical Athens both serious and casual reference wouldnaturally be made and a character in the mechanicals’ play (conceived as theman-in-the-moon with dog and thorn-bush or brush) Shakespeare makes possible ahuge number of occasions when these words are used. When Oberon tells Puck to “overcastthe Night’s” we may stop imagining the moonlight for a while! Characters in thewood (escaping or hunting or doing observance to a morn of May) may have reasonto refer to the place. The audience is thus continually reminded that the barestage is the Palace Wood. To add hunting hounds (offstage, of course, becausein “the western valley”) to our idea of the wood is no problem at all. Also noproblem is believing that Puck, with his fairy eloquence, can convincinglymimic the speech of other characters.
Chapter 3. Analysis of the main themes touched in theplay
1.3.1 Order and disorder as the first major theme
Generalcomments on some of these subjects follow. A word of caution is in order first.One can readily identify possible subjects for essay questions, and you shouldbe prepared to answer on any of these. This is not the same as writing out anessay you have prepared before the exam (always a foolish idea). Questions willbe worded so as to make this difficult, and to make it obvious if you do it:examiners like organized answers but dislike the “prepared essay”. Take yourtime to read both alternative questions carefully. It is very often the casethat a question which looks hard, because of its wording, is straightforward inreality while a question which looks simple, rarely is! />Orderand disorder is a favourite theme of the playwright. In this play theapparently anarchic tendencies of the young lovers, of themechanicals-as-actors, and of Puck are restrained by the “sharp Athenian law”and the law of the Palace Wood, by Theseus and Oberon, and their respectiveconsorts. This tension within the world of the play is matched in itsconstruction: in performance it can at times seem riotous and out of control,and yet the structure of the play shows a clear interest in symmetry andpatterning. Confronted by the “sharp” law of Athens, and not wishing to obeyit, Lysander thinks of escape. But he has no idea that the wood, which he seesmerely as a rendezvous before he and Hermia fly to his aunt, has its own lawand ruler. As Theseus is compromised by his own law, so is Oberon. Theseuswishes to overrule Egeus, but knows that his own authority derives from thelaw, that this cannot be set aside when it does not suit the ruler’s wishes. Hedoes discover a merciful provision of the law which Egeus has overlooked (forHermia to choose “the livery of a nun”) but hopes to persuade Demetrius torelinquish his claim, insisting that Hermia take time before choosing her fate.The lovers’ difficulties are made clear by the law of Athens, but arise fromtheir own passions: thus, when they enter the woods, they take their problemswith them. Oberon is compromised because his quarrel with Titania has causedhim and her to neglect their duties: Oberon, who should rule firmly over theentire fairy kingdom cannot rule in his own domestic arrangements. We see howeach ruler, in turn, resolves this problem, without further breaking of hislaw. In the love relationships of Theseus and Hippolyta, of Oberon and Titaniaand of the two pairs of young lovers, we see love which, in a mannerappropriate to the status and character of the lovers, is idealized eventually.The duke and his consort have had their quarrel before the action of the playbegins, but Shakespeare’s choice of mythical ruler means the audience wellknows the “sword” and “injuries” referred to in 1.2; we see the resolution ofthe fairies’ quarrel and that of the lovers during the play, and all is happyat its end. But whereas the rulers resolve their own problems, as befits theirmaturity and status, the young lovers are not able to do so, and this task isshared by Oberon and Theseus. Oberon orders Puck to keep Lysander and Demetriusfrom harming each other, and Theseus confirms their wishes as he overbearsEgeus’ will. He is not now breaking his own law, because Demetrius cannot becompelled to marry against his will. A ridiculous parallel case of young loversso subject to passion that, after disobeying their parents’ law, they taketheir own lives, is provided by Pyramus and Thisbe. Lysander and Demetriuslaugh at the mechanicals’ exaggerated portrayal of these unfortunates, but theaudience has seen the same excessive passion in earnest from these two. IfLysander breaks – or evades – the Athenian law knowingly, then the mechanicalsbreak the law of the wood unwittingly. Puck’s conversation with the first fairyin 2.1, makes clear that the wood is where Oberon and Titania keep their court,though they travel further afield. (Oberon, according to Titania, has come “fromthe farthest steep of India” because of the marriage of his favourite toTheseus, while the Fairy Queen has also been in India with the mother of herchangeling.) When he finds the workmen rehearsing, Puck notes the impertinenceof these “hempen homespuns” being so near the bower of the Fairy Queen. Andwhen we see that bower, we see Titania with her attendant fairies, we hear theceremonial etiquette of their speaking in turn, even to “hail” the ass-headedBottom. The incursion of these mortals into the fairies’ domain may be somewhatof an impertinence, but Oberon lets there be no doubt that he is ruler here.The audience, taken into his and Puck’s confidence, may see the mortals in thewood as “fools”, subject to the power of the unseen spirits; but we also seehow that power is exercised for the good of the uninvited guests. Bottom, inthe arms of Titania, would seem to the Elizabethan audience to be playing withfire; and yet no harm comes to him. If the principal characters in the playserve to subvert or to restore order, how do we categorize Puck? By his ownadmission he is the most successful of all practical jokers. And his giving Bottomthe ass’s head or his delight on discovering the results of administering thejuice of love-in-idleness to the wrong person (“this their jangling I esteem asport”) suggest that he is another representative of anarchy. But charged witha serious duty, he is perfectly obedient (“I go, I go, look how I go”) and heis taken into his master’s confidence. It is Puck who perfectly explains howorder is to be restored to the young lovers’ confused relations:
“Jack shallhave Jill/Naught shall go ill/The man shall have his mare again and all shallbe well”.[10]
Itis Puck who keeps the young men from harming each other, and it is Puck, withhis broom, who leads the fairies in their blessing of Theseus’ house in thefinal episode of Act 5. Though the hard work of restoring harmony to his ownrelations with Titania, and among the young lovers is principally done byOberon and Puck, Theseus also has a part to play. In the opening scene, he isclearly trying to calm heated passions and buy time for Hermia. He does notknow how or why the four lovers are “fortunately met”, but he acts decisivelyin over-bearing Egeus’ will but compensates him for any loss of face with thehonour of a joint wedding ceremony. In Act 5, we see how his own greathappiness makes the Duke more, not less, eager to promote the happiness of theyoung lovers (“Joy, gentle friends, joy and fresh days of love/ Accompany yourhearts”) and to show considerate approval of the efforts of the amateurperformers of Pyramus and Thisbe. We do not see the threat to Athenian orderposed by the incursion of the Amazons, but we do see, and enjoy with Puck, theconfusion of the lovers and others in the wood, in the play’s middle scenes.Though Puck and Oberon will eventually succeed, their first efforts to helpHelena lead to an aggravation of the lovers’ plight: Shakespeare contrives thateach of the four, by the end of 3.2 will have a different perception (in everycase wrong) of his or her situation. The serious disorder brought about in thenatural world by the fairies’ quarrel cannot be shown directly, but isgraphically described by Titania; what can be shown is the incongruous pairingof the Fairy Queen and ass-headed Bottom. A different kind of chaos is seen inthe attempts of the mechanicals to perform a play. We actually see casting,rehearsal, revision of the text and eventual performance. The ineptitude of theactors counterpoints the virtuosity of Shakespeare’s control of the playproper. This is shown both on the small and the large scale. The linguisticvariety of the play (see below) and the control of the four narrative strandsare such that the play has enjoyed great success in performance. In the wood,Shakespeare will leave a group of characters alone for as long as he needs to,but we never lose touch with their story. It is typical of Shakespeare that themortals we see first in the wood are Demetrius and Helena; at once theplaywright shows us the cause of Demetrius’ rejection of Helena and lets usknow that the other pair are also in the wood. We do not need to see Lysanderand Hermia before they have lost their way, but we are ready for Puck’s mistakeas he seeks one in “Athenian garments”.
/>/>1.3.2 The young lovers
Forthe proper view of their plight we should look to other characters in the play.We are invited to sympathize with their situation, but to see as ratherridiculous the posturing to which it leads. This is evident in their languagewhich is often highly formal in use of rhetorical devices, and in Lysander’sand Hermia’s generalizing of “the course of true love” (the “reasons” they givewhy love does not “run smooth” clearly do not refer to their own particularproblems: they are not “different in blood”, nor mismatched “in respect ofyears”). Pyramus and Thisbe is not only Shakespeare’s parody of the work ofother playwrights but also a mock-tragic illustration of Lysander’s famousremark. This is evident in a number of similarities to the scenes in the Dreamin which the young lovers are present. Before the play begins, and at its end, asDemetrius loves Helena, we see two happy couples; but Demetrius’ loss of lovefor Helena (arising from, or leading to, his infatuation with Hermia) disturbsthe equilibrium. That Demetrius really does re-discover his love for Helena inthe wood (as opposed to continuing merely in a dotage induced by the juice oflove-in-idleness) is clear from his speech on waking. Unlike his “goddess,nymph, divine” outburst, this defence of his love and repentance for hisinfatuation with Hermia (likened to a sickness) is measured and persuasive. Thecritic who objects to the absence of any stage direction for the giving toDemetrius of Dian’s bud, the antidote to Cupid’s flower, can be answered thus:in a performance, the audience is not likely to detect the omission; we maysuppose the effects of the flower to wear off over time, but Demetrius’ lovedoes not; in any case, Puck could “apply” the “remedy” to the eyes of each “gentlelover”, at the end of Act 3, if the director is troubled by this seemingdiscrepancy. But the best reason is that Demetrius’s profession of hisnew-found love makes the antidote or its absence redundant in his case. Earlyin the play we laugh at what the young lovers say. Lysander is aware of his andHermia’s sufferings, but to pontificate about “the course of true love”generally, to say it “never did run smooth”, is risible. The alternate lines inwhich Lysander proposes a reason why love does not “run smooth”, while Hermiacomments on his statement, invite ridicule, as his “or” (leading to anotherreason) is followed by her “O”, bewailing the cause of the lovers’ suffering.In the same scene, we note how the same device (_tichomythia) is used ratherdifferently, as Hermia and Helena expound Demetrius’ preferences: “I frown uponhim, yet he loves me still”/”O that your frowns would teach my smiles suchskill!”. Here the use of similar vocabulary with opposite meaning is madeemphatic by the rhyming couplet. When Helena soliloquizes about love, at theend of the scene, she speaks wisely, in her general account, but her inabilityto be wise in her own situation is comic. Disclosing her rival’s flight toDemetrius, to enjoy his company briefly, seems perverse, but is whollyplausible: young people in love often do silly things. In the wood, we see thelikely outcome of Oberon’s orders to Puck, as we know that a man in “Atheniangarments” could be Lysander, who, according to Demetrius and Helena, is alreadyin the wood. But the multiple confusion caused by the love-in-idleness amongthe four lovers is richly comic in its variety. Each has a different understanding of the situation.
· Lysandersees no reason why he should not reject Hermia (in spite of his rash promise: “Andthen end life, when I end loyalty”) as love justifies this conduct, anexaggerated version of Demetrius’s disloyalty to Helena previously.
· Demetriusloves Helena, and wishes to resume his earlier claim on her affections. Eachman loves her and cannot see why she doubts him.
· Hermiahas no doubt that they love Helena, but believes Helena to have used doubtfulmeans to steal Lysander’s love (Egeus has earlier accused Lysander of doingthis to woo his daughter).
· Helenadisbelieves all three, assuming that Hermia’s complaints are feigned, and that “sheis one of this confederacy”. The characters have no proper understanding ofwhat they feel; the whole episode is a Night’smare magnification of the madnesslove ordinarily can lead to. And when the men “seek a place to fight”, they areserious in their purpose. But the audience is assured by Oberon’s vigilance andPuck’s activity that “all shall be well”. And the proper response to them is toagree with Puck: “Lord, what fools these mortals be”. The actors should playthe parts without any sense of irony, however.[11]
For a moresympathetic view of the lovers, we should consider Theseus’s attempt (1.1) toshow Hermia how much she would lose, to “endure the livery of a nun”. Theappeals to “desire”, “youth” and “blood” show his awareness of the sexualdesire of a young woman, while his comparison of the “rose distill’d” to thaton the “virgin thorn” delicately advertises the attraction of maternity. Hermia’sreply shows her understanding of his reason, and her determination. In the duke’spresence she is shown at her best; when he leaves, her conversation withLysander is touching initially, as they comfort each other, but soon becomesoverwrought, exaggerating their passion. In Act 4, suddenly with no cause forfurther enmity, there is no hint of a grudge on the part of any; each has,impossibly, it seems, the prospect of immediate marriage to the preferredpartner, while the feuding of the previous Night’s is remembered but, in itsmany confusions (changes of desire, seeming betrayals, quarrels, voices fromnowhere) thought of as a dream. This view is anticipated by the pair ofsix-line stanzas spoken by Helena and Hermia at the end of Act 3. Each is amoving expression of despair and resignation (though Helena’s “O weary Night’s,O long and tedious Night’s” has a hint of Pyramus’s “O grim-looked Night’s, O Night’swith hue so black!” about it. If Puck hints at how we are to see the lovers inthe wood, Theseus is able, in the final act, to articulate our happiness at thecomic resolution: “Joy, gentle friends, joy and fresh days of love/Accompanyyour hearts”, while we inwardly endorse the fairies’ blessing and Oberon’spromise that the lovers’ “issue” shall “ever…be fortunate”, the couples “evertrue in loving”. We rejoice to see Lysander’s pessimistic utterancecontradicted.
Conclusion
1.3. Havingsaid about Shakespeare’s comedies we dare to say that it is the most importantmilestone in the creative activity of him. But even amongst his immortal worksof this kind the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” stands in the special play.The first reason of this lies in the period of writing of it. The play isreferred to the third, last period of creative activity, it is seeminglysummarizes the whole life of the dramatist and the death of the main heroes atthe fourth act is a hint for the closest death of Shakespeare himself. So oneanother reason for the significance of the comedy follows just after: it maybethe only work of Shakespeare where the humour and laughter are being mixed withthe tragedy. And this mixing appears on the background of the exact descriptionof humans life and characters which are closely similar to the historicchronicles. In our work we tried to demonstrate this spirit of comedy mixedwith the tragedic chronicles of the author himself.
Our work aimedto show the novelity of the play though it was written three-four centuriesago, we tried to prove that even being a dream the narration does not lose thereal character. We made our conclusion that fairy tales cannot but link withthe real life and the problems of life, love, happiness, sadness, revenge existin both at the Heavens and the Earth.
2.3. In ourqualification work we tried to give some light to the following items:
a) To show theunusual, unique compositional structure of the play on the example of the mostsignificant scenes of each act of the play.
b) To analyzethe main themes of the play.
c) To provethe brilliant nature of the Shakespeare’s language.
d) To comparethe different features of the main heroes in their controversy and similarity.
Having workedon our qualification work we could do the following conclusion and notes:
1) Being notvolumable play it remained in our hearts as one of the most
brilliantthings created by the “Avon Bard”.
2) The mainidea of the play was to show the interrelations between life and dream, thedifferent state of minds of illiterate but kind and passionate wandering actorsand foolish, cruel, envious power “handers”.
3) The mainthemes of the play are order and disorder, love and marriage, appearance andreality.
4) The geniusof the author is concluded in mixing and installation of one narration intoanother, assistance of prose and poetry with single repliques and comments.
5) The heroesof the play are not happy even having got the things they dreamt.
In the veryend of our qualification work we would like to say that the play “A Midsummer Night’sDream ” seems to us as the most meaningful not only for those who is interestedin Shakespeare but for the whole humanity.
/>Bibliography:
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